I Do Wish This Cruel War Was Over: First Person Accounts of Civil War Arkansas From the Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Edited by Mark K. Christ and Patrick G. Williams, University of Arkansas Press 2014, $34.95
This anthology of first-person accounts of the Civil War in Arkansas is a perfect model for scholars contemplating undertaking similar efforts in the future. The material the editors have selected for the anthology covers a wide range of experiences and events, created by writers hailing from diverse backgrounds. The accounts are organized in easy-to-follow fashion, and the editors’ generous footnotes and annotations give added meaning to the material and place it in the larger context of the war. Mistakes made in the original accounts have been corrected, another benefit for modern readers hoping to comprehend the writers’ true intentions. The result is a vibrant word picture of a war that was fought in less-familiar locales by protagonists from an unfamiliar society.
War in the Trans-Mississippi Theater was indeed a different experience that is fortunately brought to life here: Battles were usually smaller; the troops available were fewer and often poorly trained and equipped; the distances over which they marched were long and rough; the weather was usually extremely hot or bitterly cold; and “hard war” fighting between guerrillas, bushwhackers and Native Americans was often the order of the day. Since 1942, the editors of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly have worked diligently to bring this often-neglected theater—the only one where whites, blacks and Indians fought with and against each other—into the mainstream of Civil War historiography.
Originally published in the November 2014 issue of America’s Civil War. To subscribe, click here.
